Jim Donaldson: Seems to be no stopping the B’s now

BOSTON — They looked, with two minutes to go in the seventh game of the first round of the playoffs, as if they’d be going home for the summer. Instead, the Bruins are going to the Stanley Cup finals for...

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Posted Jun. 7, 2013 @ 10:01 pm

BOSTON — They looked, with two minutes to go in the seventh game of the first round of the playoffs, as if they’d be going home for the summer.

Instead, the Bruins are going to the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in three years.

Will they play the defending champion Los Angeles Kings?

Or will it be the Blackhawks of Chicago?

Does it matter?

Not really.

Because, if ever there was a team of destiny, it has to be these Bruins, who looked as if they were stick-a-fork-in-’em-finished when they trailed the Maple Leafs by two goals in the waning seconds of Game Seven — about to be first-round losers in the playoffs for the second straight season.

Instead, they staged a miracle comeback to win that game in overtime and have lost only one since.

After routing the Rangers in five games in the conference semis, the hottest team in hockey has swept the favored Penguins out of the playoffs in four straight, by a combined score of 12-2.

That’s a bit deceptive, since the B’s eked out Game Three in double overtime, 2-1, and prevailed last night by the merest of margins, 1-0.

But that was the ninth win in the last 10 games for the Bruins, who have looked unbeatable since battling back from the brink of blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Leafs.

When defenseman Adam McQuaid blasted a slap shot past Pittsburgh goalie Tomas Vokoun into the upper left corner of the net at 5:01 of the third period, that set off a towel-waving celebration of Zdeno Chara-sized proportions, the 17,565 happy hockey fans standing as one and roaring loud enough to sound like 170,000.

To Pittsburgh, those had to seem like Terrible Towels.

Except these weren’t being waved by Steelers fans, celebrating another Super Bowl victory.

They were the same color, but signified something very different.

This time, it was Pittsburgh fans who felt terrible to see those gold towels waving as Boston fans celebrated McQuaid’s score.

They knew — as, down deep, the Pens’ fans did, too – that likely would be all that Boston’s netminder, Tuukka Rask and the B’s would need to put away Pittsburgh.

Because the Steelers’ famed Steel Curtain defense had nothing on this bunch of Bruins.

The Penguins came in averaging more than four goals a game in their first two playoff series, simple skatearound wins over the overmatched Islanders and Senators.

But they had a not-so-grand total of two — that’s right, two! — in four games against Boston, as the Bruins’ smothering “D” and Rask’s sensational goaltending frustrated the Penguins throughout the series.

The prolific Penguins ranked second in the NHL in the regular season on the power play, scoring on nearly 25 percent (42 of 170) of their extra-man opportunities.

But they didn’t convert even once against the Bruins, who rendered them powerless: 0-for-15.

Turn out the lights in Pittsburgh — the party’s over. And so is the Penguins’ season.

It was fitting that the game ended in a shutout for Rask, who was virtually impenetrable in the series, from start to finish.

And, at the finish, a literally last-second shot ended up in Rask’s glove.

After which, he raised his hand high in triumph, then flipped the puck into the air and swatted it away, symbolizing what the Bruins had done to the Penguins.

“There's no question,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said at his postgame press conference, “that the performance (Rask) put on in this series was elite. He was the difference.

“It's not like we didn't have good looks at the net, good opportunities. But we weren't able to get on the board.”

It’s not exactly stunning that Boston beat Pittsburgh.

But it’s certainly surprising that the Bruins swept the Pens in four games.

Not even the most optimistic, spoked-B-sweater-wearing supporter of the Bruins would have predicted that.

Game Four was one where it became evident that one goal likely would be the difference, that one goal quite possibly would amount to all the scoring.

So it was that, after McQuaid put the puck into the net to give Boston a 1-0 lead that loomed all but insurmountable the way Rask was playing, the fans interspersed their chants of “Let’s go, Bruins!” with, “We want the Cup!”

They kept chanting that as the Bruins posed on the ice afterward with the conference championship trophy.

It’s nice piece of silver to have, but it’s not the one the Bruins want.